Related posts:

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 23rd, 2014 at 8:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

99 Responses to “General Debate 23 February 2014”

The Herald gets “In bed with the bloggers” but concentrates mostly on Whale and Bomber.

Politicians’ private lives are fair game this election year as bloggers set the tone for debate. But is there a softer side to these abrasive, divisive voices? Nah, naff off.

DPF gets a mention but nothing more as he doesn’t fit the profile to story wants to get across:

The leading bloggers trade on one core asset: the power of personality. They are loud, they are brash and they are, ahem, manufactured. The top ones admit creating personas that are more in-your-face than the real person.

There’s a fair bit of loud, brash and manufactured here but it’s not DPF at all, and he would have to rate as one of the “top ones”.

And Graeme Edgeler is mentioned for filing a submission! How vicious is that?

I suspect that the real news in that story is that the socialist twerps are few, and getting fewer in number, that there is a Italian Marxist (how the F*** does he get residence in NZ????) ……..and that Bradbury, whoever he thinks he is by bombing out every day, judges that the 2014 will be “vicious”.

On Planet Earth, all of the past three GE campaigns have not been vicious….and each has seen a diminution in Labour’s support base. When Labour sent Williams and his dirty fingers go to Melbourne to extract non existent “dirt” on J Key, that wasn’t vicious? So in all their fruitless digging and sniping, even getting at Key’s family, that wasn’t vicious?

No that is not vicious but it is proof, positive, that Bradbury, and little Italian prick, and all the stranded jerks, are demented.

Bradbury will have enjoyed the coverage the Herald has given him but the fact is he has lost a lot of credibility on the left since his switch from being paid by Mana to being paid by Dotcom. That was a bad look for The Daily Blog.

He currently seems to be working for his union sponsors trying to push Cunliffe into going hard left – to attract the hundreds of thousands who never vote.

There’s rumours Colmar will not be flash for Cunliffe and the growing Labour rumblings support that possibility. The polling period includes some of this week’s debacle.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Slater says. “It was a painful part of life. I don’t want to pick scabs that don’t need to be picked … You guys ran the story and it caused unending grief for a long time.”

Of course only his feelings are important, not those of the of, say, grieving parents, be they of the feral or toff-nosed variety.

Yep, very good from Rodney, one of his better columns – and important to call out Jones’ apparent over-egging. If Countdown suffers a buyer backlash and lay off staff I wonder if Jones will claim the credit for that.

stigie – probably not, it’s usually funkstille at The Standard for bad poll results. What they don’t say can be as revealing as what they do say.

It’s the only possible outcome of election 2014. Labour is eating itself, the Greens are insane, Mana is even more insane, Dunne and Banks are nowhere to be seen or heard of and Winston has really jumped the shark recently. The media will kill him off now.

And –

National have order, everyone’s on the same page, economy’s rocking along (well that’s the perception out there anyway) AND there are no skeletons in John Key’s personal closet. We’re still seeing the fruits of his selection. Craig will poll higher I reckon. He’s the winner in the current lawsuit against Norman – he’s just keeping his name out there. Clever.

Look I can’t wait. Once the campaign starts in earnest they are going to start bludgeoning the Left and it’s gonna be carnage. Keep your powder dry guys.

t’s time for NZ to look at tax-free status of so-called charitable trusts, with Ngai Tahu talking of working with other tribes to build on its mussel farming interests in the northern tip of the South Island. These tribes are getting a $200 million treaty settlement from the Government – that is, from taxpayers.

Ngai Tahu’s businesses operate tax free under the tribe’s group status as a charitable trust. The tribe’s businesses employ 600 people and the tribe’s assets are now worth a billion dollars. It would increase the wrong if the tribe’s tax-free status somehow extended to joint ventures with these other tribes.

The tribe’s settlement, which includes first and second rights of South Island Crown assets for ever, was negotiated for it by Chris Finlayson, who has since become a list MP and is now Treaty Minister and Attorney-General.

Ngai Tahu isn’t the only business owner to have an edge on competitors because of tax-free charity status. The Seventh Day Adventist Church’s Sanitarium food manufacturing business also operates under charity status.

Mr Scott Chris, uptick from me. Couldn’t help snort into my smoked salmon poached eggs this AM when I read that wonderful hypocrisy from the rotund one. He thinks he can call anyone on anything, but as soon as its his knob doing the jiggy jig, its off limits. Whale, youre a fucking hypocrite. By all means apply the heat, but expect yourself to be heated in return when others hold you to the same standard.

Jack5.
I dont think its a big deal Ngai Tahu being tax free, they do what ever they do and make a buck or three. Said profit is then handed out to members who then pay tax on the income, probably at a lower rate.
Its kinda like Fonterra. They pay SFA tax as its all paid by the farmers. (or not if they have a huge mortgage!)

We need more Ngai Tahu’s , they are a great example of what Iwi can and should do.
If only the scum Iwi in the far North would follow suit rather than allow its members to kill their kids and fill the prisions.

…. as one of the people on TV with the least likeable personalities. What a boring little dorky dribbly dweeb. There’s some things money can’t buy. All the sex appeal of a week old used nappy. Looks like he’d make a good undertaker. And if looks could kill – he’d create a lot of business for himself.

His staring intense bug eyes remind me of some furry little nocturnal animal that has somehow found itself above ground during daylight hours and feeling all sorts of wrong, and wanting desperately to escape back to the relative safety of its cozy burrow.

What would it take for Mr Cool Guy to crack his arseface with a non-creepy grin, huh ? 5% ? That might do it.

Bullshit Longknives.
They get a top-up as they signed on the dotted line early.
Without a clause like that no one would want to be first as they would be in danger of accepting too small a number.
Good on them for negotiating hard.

That particular comment you highlight is interesting. It certainly illustrates a certain lack of awareness from Slater that he would say it. But Slater is not averse to playing the victim when it suits him. He can also be the big cry-baby if need be. Only a couple of days ago he was moaning because Annette King said some mean things about him. Of course the fact that he has his blog, and indeed is still alive to defend himself would never have occurred to him. It would seem that both Len and Slater suffer from narcissistic personality disorder. DPF, as a friend, should have a talk with Slater and get him to pull his head in before it’s too late.

What will they say about Martyn Bradbury revealing he talks to David Cunliffe, that Grant Robertson “doesn’t have a high level of discomfort” with him, and that Bradbury is suggesting an election campaign that “is going to be incredibly vicious”?

See Lecher Len has aligned himself to the rainbows. Suppose he must get support somewhere, but he is also being helped by many media, so keep up the good work, those of you who are opposing this disgusting specimen of humanity. The pressure must be kept on him, and Kerre McIvor depicts the Lech wonderfully in today’s APN Herald.

“Women’s golf as an absorbing sporting spectacle is the equal of the mens version.”

c’mon Pete, it’s only suddenly absorbing because of “Kiwi Ko” doing so well. A bit like the equestrian, as long as Kiwis are doing well it is apparently very exciting to watch toffs in poncy pants riding about on horses.

National know they need a harder edge because they’ve moved into Labour’s ‘house’ so to speak. Plenty of traditional Nat supporters are getting a bit restless. So it’s in their interest to have Cons on standby; especially seeing the other ‘brands’ are so… tired.

I think I saw everything when I saw the studio footage of Key and Leighton Smith discussing Colin. Never dismiss body language. Key was very, very cautious and measured in his tackling of ‘is Craig a conspiracy theorist?’. he said, ‘he’s either very very clever, or very stupid’. Or words to that effect. While carefully fiddling with his tie.

Look Craig taking Norman to account recently is neither here nor there. If Norman gets his ass kicked; good. If they settle or the thing goes away or they kiss and make up, similar good. Once again Craig has got himself into the media with his gob all over the broadsheets, and that’s what it’s all about. The fight is irrelevant, it’s simply oxygen they are fighting for. Which is why Norman scurried off to KDC’s mansion. Oxygen.

Anyone even remember the last Kiwi sensation ‘Kiwi’ Danny Lee?
Our media was gushing over him for a while- “Better than Tiger” “The game changer” etc etc
Turns out he wasn’t.
Nor was he even remotely interested in staying a ‘Kiwi’..

Spark: Uncool top brass old white man on TV was asked a question he didn’t like and his reaction was like a deeply hurt overly-sensitive little girl. What a dick. Talk about uncool. What – you thought you’d just get nice questions moron ? The higher-ups sure get upset easily when anyone dares challenge them. Must be too much arse-sucking from their subordinates – they’re not accustomed to anyone standing on their feet talking in anything but submissive soft adoring tones.

Hilarious: Paul Henry asking Spark mouthpiece to read the predictable onslaught of cynical reactionary Tweets about the name change – straight into the camera – brilliant.

TVNZ: Must surely have an office pool going for the not far off date that Miss Blonde Bimbo Airhead Moron Childrens Presenter Fluffy McFluff Fluff Spacewaster is ripped from her 7pm chair or Hosking snaps and tries to slap all the idiocy clean off her Dulux face. I say she’s goneburger by April.

Plus, don’t underestimate Colin Craig for this reason.
He comes across as having little in the way of a sense of humour, kind of nerdy, probably folds his Y fronts and has chops with mashed potato and two veg regularly, thinks Toyota Corolas are great cars and why doesn’t everyone have one.

I think Danny Lee is still a Kiwi, although he doesn’t appear that interested in playing in the NZ tournaments. I recall when he won the US amateur and the NZ flag was unfurled. Seemed an unusual occurrence on a golf course, but I have suspicions that NZG might have had something to do with it. NZG are very nervous about all these Korean born players who come here for the purpose of developing their golf game. Ko is one of these, although I’ve seen some propaganda attempting to imply that she just happened to pick up the game here by chance. NZG have thrown thousands of dollars at her in an attempt to get her to stay a Kiwi, or at least make it uncomfortable for her to switch allegiances to Korea, like Cecelia Cho did. I recall seeing both Ko and Cho on the Murray Deaker show, they appeared accompanied with stuffed Kiwi toys, presumably supplied by NZG specifically for the appearance. NZG are trying to ride on Ko’s coat-tails by making out NZ is the place for new revolutionary golf coaching methods.

Went to the Pride Parade in Ponsonby last night, as a parade it was ordinary, lacking pizzazz and the 5 minutes gaps between the floats didn’t help & its noticeable that the media has virtually ignored the fact that the Israeli float was interrupted by protesters who had to be removed from the course. Imagine if the Greens had been protested against by national supporters, the outrage would be ringing across the blogsosphere

It was really noticeable that when the Labour Party walked Cunliffe really is a man alone, there was interaction between the others in the group but Walter was not part of things.

Greens were big in numbers but neither they or labour elicited the support they would have hoped for.

I think these lefties forget that the pink vote has money, they don’t like funding losers anymore than society in general.

While National can’t relax going into November Labour are fucked & to misquote George Gregan ” 3 more years boys”

There I was in the kitchen, whipping up a simple snack of red-legged partridge roasted with sweetbreads, creamed parsnips, apricots, Marcona almonds, and textures of summer vegetables, when I was told Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said that I believe a woman’s place is in the kitchen.

Talk about laugh bitterly and maniacally.

I’ve got a very well-developed sense of humour and I was soon screeching with laughter. Then I began howling with laughter while setting the partridge on fire and smashing every window in the house.

By the time I was laughing so hard that my eardrums started to bleed, I’d managed to crawl to the phone and phone my lawyers at Chapman Tripp to threaten Norman with defamation.

Good looking Women have a way of making a boring sport more interesting, hence women’s curling is better to watch especially when the Russians are playing.
But in regards to curling why do you need a men’s & women’s division, strength isn’t really a factor why couldn’t they play against each other?

Drunks are stealing hand sanitiser from the hospitals for a fix, according to an article in the Dom Post.

“Bottles of hand sanitiser have been removed or are under lock-down at several hospitals as thieves target the high-alcohol substance to get drunk.”
“At Waikato Hospital there have been six incidents in the past year involving theft of sanitiser, including one involving a man caught taking 23 bottles. Another man took 15 bottles. One thief tried to drink the hand sanitiser as he ran from security staff.”

… drunks and alcoholics will go to any lengths to get a fix, even if it means stealing medical supplies from the hospital. But get this part:

“The thefts are being blamed on “excessive alcohol marketing” which an addiction expert claims promotes a heavy drinking culture.”

WHAT??? Alcohol advertising is the cause of alcoholics stealing from hospitals? This is so obviously ridiculous. I thought this comment was particularly hilarious though:

“How do you drink the stuff? With ice? Make a long drink with a mixer? Do you serve it with food? What are the preferred brands? Not enough information. Is there a guide available for the discerning user?”

You are of course right. Stupid old Pete George entirely missed the point I made about comparing sports played by chicks and blokes being unequal when that sport involves power or speed.

Ask yourself, would you rather watch the NZ chicks rugby team play or the NZ Mens team?, would you rather watch Brendan McCullum bat or some unknown captain of the NZ chicks team?

Where there is no level of speed or power required then I fail to see why the chicks are not competing with the men on an equal level. I can think of games like Darts, Lawn Bowls, Curling and the like where there is no advantage either way.

I note Germaine Greer rates a bare mention here.It would be timely to update as to what she’s up to in OZ.Germaine has devoted a large part of her later life rehabilitating 60 hectares of rainforest at Cave creek, Queenslamd.Not only has she replanted and it with native species but has also reintroduced native insects and animals that originally belonged there.Her book, White Beech The Rainforest years tells of her experiences and gets gets a rave review in the Daily Telegraph.,

Just the name Ronda Rousey generates income for UFC. She creates record breaking gate takings.

I didn’t know you were such a trivialist!

Today her fight with Sarah McMann will be one of the all time historic fights as both women have 8-0 records, both Olympic medalists . Rousey’s coach says he will never find another Ronda Rousey again.

She never bleeds. Meisha taite pummelled her yet no blood but Taites mouth was red.

No one has pushed Rousey into second wind. McMann is capable to do that today and the world will witness a spectacle maybe never again to be seen from Rousey.

Todays fight will be nothing short of unprecedented. And that has been stated by the heavy weight male champion Daniel Cornier who I would listen to first!

At the time he replaced Denis Welch (who was amusing) in the Listener, Braunias could be described as “lame and lacking in wit.” This secret dairy is a good concept (although hardly original) but Braunias seems to have plumbed new depths in the unfunny department with it. Labelling this new column as lame and lacking wit flatters him. Maybe it’s being a bit tough on him – I hardly bother to even look at it now and if I do I don’t need to skim more than a couple of lines before flagging it – but it just strikes me as primary school stuff.

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe it is reported that Ormsby admitted to the possession of a cannabis cigarette in her purse. I would not consider going to Bali but if I did and happened to smoke dope I would not do so there. Likewise I would not illegally possess alcohol in a country where is was illegal and the penlites severe.

This wonderful National Government through the RMA and Smith .
Have been informed that producers in Hawkes Bay who were forced to put meters on wells ,which is bs, now have to have them calibrated .
This is another cost of $500 per meter! Supposedly has to be done every five years now.
The guy doing the calibration can’t stop smiling,has a list a mile long.
It’s extortion.

If you aren’t metered, how can they know you are staying within you limit?

I can understand requiring calibration on mechanical meters because they would wear, but I though there was a new kind that didn’t – so as long as their is no evidence of tampering, then maybe any calibration interval could be longer.

Much of his globetrotting has been paid for by the climate change lobby group, Globe International, which is part-funded by British taxpayers.

Most of the trips enjoyed by Mr Gardiner, who was a Minister in Tony Blair’s Government, have come in the four years since Labour lost power.

Since 2010, when MPs were forced to declare the costs of such jaunts – officially called fact-finding trips – he has racked up 103 days overseas at a cost of £74,125. In 2011 alone, he spent 35 days abroad on free trips.

TDM.
Its a very complicated issue but what has happened now is that it has been captured by those creating a whole new industry around water.
There are natural limiting factors such as the price of fuel and electricity and no one in their right mind needs to over water a crop or cause water logging.
Metering can be useful for a grower but now the bureaucrats are involved it is out of control and just creates openings for money making .
Dairying is one case that requires close monitoring but many other crops just don’t need the heavy hand of the law to penalise already difficult economic conditions.

“Moon man” Ken Ring has used his claimed Christchurch earthquake predictions to defeat an Advertising Standards Authority complaint over his weather forecasting website.

Ring sells long-range weather projections on his website and advertises them by saying he differs from meteorologists, who cannot make long-range predictions.

Wellington geochemist Douglas Sheppard complained about the site to the Advertising Standards Authority, which rules on the acceptability of ads.
…[Ring] told the ASA he did not claim 100 per cent accuracy “only . . . 80 to 85 per cent. But I am obviously able to make accurate predictions, so the complainant’s claim that I am ‘quite unable to make accurate long-range predictions’ is false.”
…In ruling in favour of Ring, the ASA said it was not “an arbiter of scientific fact”. Instead, its role was to consider the ads from the perspective of the likely audience and decide whether claims were substantiated by the advertiser.

It said Ring’s website carried a disclaimer that his information was “opinion-based”.

The ASA said the likely “consumer take-out” from Ring’s advertisement was that he could make opinion-based weather predictions, which were “often but not always accurate”, and this was clear to consumers.

Accordingly, the complaint was not upheld.

So Ring, by his own admission, admits that he’s selling an opinion rather than a scientifically-based service. That begs the question: who would be interested in buying Ring’s opinion?

The answer, according to his website, is intriguing: “Predict Weather offers services at affordable rates to councils and corporates, down to weather for a family reunion or a single forecast for a couple organising a wedding”.

nickb: Listener has, and never will, attract top journos. Braunias’ attempt at satirical journalism being as sick as that of Soper.
It is not the forte of left-wingers to entertain, they are more adept in the field of insulting media with their pro-Labour/Green doctrine.

Mind you I can kind of understand, given the misconceptions around irrigation, and the perceptions that farmers are running the rivers dry, that it isn’t unreasonable to show what you actually are using. Maybe also, it’s in your best interests to do so anyway just to show that you can’t be running the rivers dry. The best cure for politicised greenie misinformation is the hot glare of the truth.

A black kid asks his mother, “Mama what’s Socialism and what is Racism?”

“Well son, Socialism is when white folks work every day so we can get all
our benefits, you knows like free cell phones for each family member, rent
subsidy, food stamps, EMC, free healthcare, utility subsidy, free computers
and internet connection, free food, free clothing, free gifts at Christmas,
& on & on, you knows? That’s Socialism.”

The economist and demographer – who has been in Australia to promote his latest book, The Demographic Cliff, and to speak at seminars – said the bubble was being propped up by baby boomers, immigration and foreign buyers, especially from China.

Said profit is then handed out to members who then pay tax on the income, probably at a lower rate.
Its kinda like Fonterra. They pay SFA tax as its all paid by the farmers. (or not if they have a huge mortgage!)

If this is the case there is no problem with the Government cancelling charitable tax status for Ngai Tahu. It can then pay tax on its business earnings, and pass on tax imputation credits with its dividends to tribal members, who can be classified as shareholders, as is the case with Fonterra.

This will avoid double taxation, but at the same time mean fair and equal competition by Ngai Tahu businesses with rival firms in fishing, tourism, property development etc.

There should be no charitable organisation status for Ngai Tahu’s businesses, nor for Seventh Day Adventists’ Sanitarium food manufacturing. Nor for other businesses. It’s hard to see why there should be tax-free status for any charities. They are either businesses or charities.

Seemingly intelligent correspondents such as David Garrett @10.49 pm come out with hand wringing
worries that if Charlotte Dawson tops herself due to ….whatever. Then we all must be concerned that
our children will be committing suicide in droves due to bullying.
Consider,
We also had bullying when i was a kid 60 years ago, kids got over it.

We also had jungle gyms and bullrush and climbing trees at school…..not many kids topped
themselves or died as a result.

People need to get real.

This might be a bit hard but, kids (and big kids like C Dawson ) who top themselves due to bullying are just weak and
are removing themselves out of the food chain in the natural order of things.

The Darwin principle.
And the weaker and less self reliant people become, the more will kill themselves.
QED

Steven Joyce said National wanted to keep the one-on-one debates but that did not necessarily mean Russel Norman would miss out. “We will be very happy to debate with the leader of the largest Opposition party at the time.

but imagine you are a young person who reads all the fukin crap about poor old Charlotte and
how she was hounded and forced into suicide and your Mum and Dad lamented the unfairness of it all.
And, it wasnt her fault, it was the fault of all those bad people who forced her into it.

As oppossed to a Mum and Dad who observed the situation and commented,”What a weak, sad person,
unable to face the challenges of life we are all faced with, how sad”